Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 33.djvu/203

Rh curate at St. Clement Danes. In 1735 he writes from Hampstead, where he kept for several years a private boarding-school. Leaving Hampstead in 1737 he settled at Chelsea, whence he sent an account of his life to Rawlinson on 12 Sept. 1737. The date of his death does not appear to be known, but he is probably the ‘Rev. J. Lewis’ whose death took place at Chelsea, according to the ‘Gentleman's Magazine,’ on 8 Sept. 1749.

He wrote, besides the works already noticed: 1. ‘An Historical Essay upon the Consecration of Churches,’ 1719. 2. ‘The Nature of Hell-Fire, the Reality of Hell-Fire, and the Eternity of Hell Torments explain'd and Vindicated,’ 1720. 3. ‘The Obligation of Christians to beautify and adorn their Churches, shewn from the authority of the Holy Scriptures, from the Practice of the Primitive Church, and from the Discipline of the Church of England Established by Law,’ London, 1721. 4. ‘Seasonable Considerations on the Indecent and Dangerous Custom of Burying in Churches and Church Fields,’ 1721. 5. ‘The History of Hypatia. A most impudent School-Mistress of Alexandria. Murdered and torn to pieces by the Populace. In defence of Saint Cyril and the Alexandrian Clergy from the Aspersions of Mr. Toland,’ 1721: a reply to the third section of Toland's ‘Tetradymus’ (1720). 6. ‘Origines Hebrææ. The Antiquities of the Hebrew Republick, in 4 books, designed as an exposition of every branch of Levitical Law and all the Ceremonies of the Hebrews, both civil and sacred,’ London, 1724, 8vo. This laborious compilation from the most distinguished writers, Jewish and Christian, was reprinted at the Clarendon press in 1834, 3 vols. 8vo. A summary of the contents is given in Darling's ‘Cyclopedia,’ col. 1835. 7. ‘Churches no Charnel Houses,’ a reiteration of the arguments used in No. 4. 8. ‘The History of the Parthian Empire … contained in a succession of twenty-nine Kings, compiled from the Greek and Latin Historians and other Writers,’ 1728. 9. ‘An Enquiry into the Shape, the Beauty, and Stature of the Person of Christ and of the Virgin Mary offered to the consideration of the late Converts to Popery,’ 1735; a learned and acute disquisition, in which, after comparing and carefully discounting the evidence for and against the personal beauty of Jesus, he concludes that the latter was in appearance rather mean and ill-favoured. It is dedicated to the Bishop of London. He also edited a translation of Bishop Sanderson's ‘Casus Conscientiæ,’ under the title ‘A Preservation against Schism and Rebellion,’ 1722, 8vo. 

LEWIS, THOMAS FRANKLAND (1780–1855), politician, only son of John Lewis of Harpton Court, Radnorshire, by his second wife, Anne, second daughter of Admiral Sir Thomas Frankland, bart. [q. v.], was born in London 14 May 1780. He was educated at Eton, where his name appears in the school lists for 1793 and 1796, and afterwards proceeded to Christ Church, but took no degree there. From 1806 to 1815 he was lieutenant-colonel of the Radnorshire militia. He was M.P. for Beaumaris from 1812 till 1826, when he was returned for Ennis. This seat he quitted in February 1828 for Radnorshire, which he represented till his retirement in 1834 on becoming chairman of the poor-law commission, but he again sat in parliament for the Radnor Burghs from 1847 until his death. From an early date he was employed in political and administrative posts of the second rank. He was appointed a member of the commission to inquire into the Irish revenue in 1821, of that to inquire into the revenue of Great Britain and Ireland in 1822, and was from 1825 to 1828 a member of the commission on Irish education. Being an adherent of Canning, he was, on 4 Sept. 1827, appointed joint-secretary to the treasury, and from February to May 1828, when he retired with Huskisson, he was vice-president of the board of trade. On taking this office he was sworn of the privy council. In February 1830 he succeeded John Charles Herries [q. v.] in the treasurership of the navy, when Herries was sent to the board of trade; but he personally added little strength to the Wellington administration, and, although the salary of his post was reduced from 3,000l. to 2,000l. by the pressure of the opposition, the fact that the post was filled up at all exposed the ministry to the charge of having broken their pledges of economy. In August 1834 the whig ministry made him chairman of the new English poor-law commission. He displayed much administrative prudence, and in 1836, when the Irish poor-law commissioners had reported somewhat hastily in favour of extensive reclamation works (see State Papers, 1836, xxx. 3), he induced the ministry to send his colleague, Nicholls, to Ireland to report independently on the subject (for this report see Parl. Papers, 1839, li. 255). In 1839 he resigned